GLENDALE, Ariz. — It got so bad for the Broncos that the people screaming back home could be heard all the way from here.

Kyle Orton was following his most lackluster performance in two seasons as a Broncos quarterback with his worst-rated passing game in five years against the pitiful Arizona Cardinals.

Via Twitter, Web, text and old-fashioned phone call, the outraged fandom in the Rocky Mountain region is demanding change and change right now.

Their chant was predictable after the Broncos were humiliated 43-13 here Sunday by the lowly Cardinals at the University of Phoenix Stadium:

Put in Tebow!

“The roster and who plays is the coach’s decision,” said Orton, who had three interceptions and an unsightly 27.1 passer rating. “But certainly I’m looking forward to these last three games and going out and playing great and finishing off our year.”

What a lousy deal Eric Studesville signed up for. He’s not so much the Broncos’ interim head coach as an unprotected, unarmed volunteer to take on a hornets’ nest.

It was Josh McDaniels, the Broncos’ head coach until he was fired last Monday, who is largely blamed for creating this mess.

At this point, it won’t be easy for Studesville to explain why he wouldn’t want rookie quarterback and first-round draft pick Tim Tebow to join him in an end-of-season audition.

Addressing the dilemma as if he has had the job for six years instead of six days, Studesville said immediately after the game, when emotions are raw, is no time to make such a decision.

“We’re going to look at everything,” Studesville said. “I want to look at this and talk with the coaches and make sure what we’re doing is best for us as a football team and where we’re going.”

Until two weeks ago, Orton had been having a Pro Bowl-caliber season had he not been looking up at such a deep American Football Conference of quarterbacks that also includes Tom Brady, Philip Rivers, Peyton Manning and Ben Roethlisberger.

“Kyle Orton’s our quarterback,” Broncos right guard and captain Chris Kuper said. “He’s had a good year. We want to continue to fight for him. I don’t know why it’s even brought up.”

Among the reasons it’s become such a torch-hot topic is the Broncos are 3-10 after just losing by 30 to what had been a 3-9 team coming off a seven-game losing streak. It’s the first time the Cardinals have ever beaten the Broncos.

On top of this indignity, Orton has fallen into a perplexing, two-game slump. A 63.4 percent passer through 11 games, he has completed only 28-of-69 (40.6 percent) the past two games with zero touchdowns, three picks and a combined 34.9 rating.

“I’ve got to make better reads, make better decisions and make better throws and get this passing game going again,” Orton said.

When a team loses and the quarterback isn’t playing well, calls for the first-round kid to play are natural. Especially when the rookie is arguably the most popular athlete on the planet.

“That’s not my decision,” said Broncos cornerback Champ Bailey when asked if it’s Tebow Time. “I just hope at some point I can play with him. We’ll see how that goes.”

Bailey was mixing his own future into the discussion as he is an unrestricted free agent at season’s end. As for Tebow, he’s one of many issues left behind by McDaniels, the man who put the Broncos’ roster together but for the first time wasn’t there to coach the team Sunday.

McDaniels was not only the Broncos’ head coach, he was their offensive play-caller. His play-calling replacement, Mike McCoy, never had a chance Sunday as the Broncos committed six turnovers — their most in 11 seasons.

In what has to be a leading candidate for the most poorly played game of the NFL season, the score one play into the fourth quarter was Jay Feely 22, Broncos 3.

That’s right, the Broncos were whipped by a kicker — well, a kicker and a fifth-round rookie quarterback from Fordham named John Skelton.

Feely had one of the best games of his 10-season, 156-game career by kicking five field goals — including missiles from 55, 49 and 48 yards out — and scoring on a 5-yard touchdown run off a fake field goal. Feely later made a tackle on a kickoff return.

Skelton indisputably had the best game of his career, which was assured the moment he showed for his first NFL start.

The thinking back home is, if a poor team like the Cardinals can win an NFL game by 30 points with a quarterback who couldn’t hold Tebow’s gym bag in college, why not glimpse at the future when the present is so bleak?

Mike Klis was with The Denver Post from Jan. 1, 1998 before leaving in 2015 to join KUSA 9News. He covered the Rockies and Major League Baseball until the 2005 All-Star break, when he was asked to start covering the Broncos.

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